SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY: Deputies agree to contract

The union representing San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies voted overwhelmingly to approve a new four-year contract in which they agree to pick up a greater share of their retirement costs, the group announced Wednesday, Sept. 5.

The Safety Employees Benefit Association, safety unit, voted by a margin of 87.4 percent in favor of the agreement, according to a news release from the group.

Ballots were counted Wednesday following a month of informational meetings and voting by members. The association’s board voted to recommend the offer last month.

The agreement, which still must be approved by the Board of Supervisors, follows a period of protracted negotiations in which relations between the county and its unions had grown increasingly rocky.

Supervisors voted to impose a contract with salary and benefit cuts in December after a different unit of the deputies union, also known as SEBA, rejected a similar contract. The union voted again and agreed to accept the county contract a couple of weeks later.

In January, SEBA and the San Bernardino Public Employees Association, the union representing general employees, announced their sponsorship of a ballot measure drastically cutting supervisors' pay after the board began discussing a possible ballot measure requiring voter approval of future pension increases.

But last month, supervisors tabled two potential pension-related ballot measures after announcing they were confident that progress could be made through negotiations.

The deputies union had told members in informational slides that if no agreement was ratified, the county could declare an impasse and seek to impose its last, best offer.

Under the plan, the county would institute a two-tier pension system for new employees and require all employees to pick up a 4.76 percent supplementary contribution to their retirement that the county now pays.

Existing employees would continue to receive retirement benefits when they earn 3 percent for each year of service at age 50, according to an informational slide on the union’s website. New employees would get 2 percent at age 50, starting in mid-2013.

The plan includes no cost-of-living salary increases and reduces the pay bumps that employees get when they move up in level from 5 percent to 2.5 percent. New hires will start at an additional lower step, 5 percent below the current beginning salary for entry-level deputies.